What stars have shot, what wrecks of worlds sublime,
Since that egg burst!

Why Jove himself was christen'd since the time

Of Goose the First.

Aye, Belzebub, now known by many titles,

Was nameless then;

Oh! since, what worms have dined upon the vitals
Of god-like men.

Thy Ancestor, oh Goose! sat down to sup

Ere snakes laid eggs;

Walk'd ere the centipede first counted up

His hundred legs.

The whale in the great deep, the lark on high-
Or geese who talk.

Oh! sacred bird, that Ancestor remote,

Think of that age,

And of this fat, brown bird here-think of him

Thus stuff'd with sage!

Sublime, ridiculous! and may his race

So high be carried?

And stood his old, old parent face to face

With Eve unmarried?

CRITICAL NOTICES.

A Steam-Voyage down the Danube, with Sketches of Hungary, Wallachia, Servia, and Turkey, &c. By Michael J. Quin, Author of "A Visit to Spain." 2 vols.

THERE were two rivers which, though known from the earliest times, were still unexplored objects of interest and curiosity. Though many travellers had fallen in with them in detail, had crossed them in various places, and knew in general the direction of their current, yet no one had pursued them to their exit, or could exactly tell what course they took to the sea. One of these was the Niger, and the other the Danube. We do not mean to say that there were the same difficulties to encounter, and the same obscurities to clear up in both; but as far as they were available for any purposes of intercourse, or description, or knowledge, or public utility, the Danube, though passing through the centre of civilized Europe, was as little known as the Niger, making its way through the deserts of barbarous Africa. The first person, we believe, who has sailed along it for any considerable distance, and passed through the semi-barbarous region which it penetrates in its way to the Euxine, was Mr. Quin, and we think his voyage, to a certain extent, as interesting and as curious as that of Lander's.

Of all the people that inhabit its shores, the Hungarians are the most intelligent, spirited, and enlightened. They have largely participated in that expansion of mind which is now dispelling the mists of ignorance in most parts of the world, and it does not appear that they will be much longer controlled by the despotic ascendency of Austria. Čount Szechenyi (we must take our chance for spelling him right) was one of those enlightened men who had felt the general impulse, and who determined to avail himself of the advance of science, and by accommodating this noble river to steam-navigation, to open his own country to European intercourse, to which it had been nearly inaccessible. He resided for some time in England, like another Peter made himself acquainted with all the details of navigation, and returning to Hungary, applied them to the hitherto impassable Danube. Rising in the eastern confines of the Black Forest, not far from the source of the Rhine, it turned in an opposite direction, and while one brought the solution of the Alpine snows to the German Ocean, the other conveyed them to the Black Sea, running a noble course of 1600 miles. Through this progress it was capable of being rendered navigable from Ulm, within 150 miles of its rise, but various political and natural impediments obstructed it; the petty jealousies of the states through which it passed excluded others from its advantages, and the sundry impediments from shallows and rocks confined its navigation to the short distance that occupied the space from one obstruction to another. From Moldavia to Orsova, a distance of twenty-one miles, the water was so shallow as not to afford a depth of six inches; and between Orsova and Gladova in Wallachia, it is shut up by an iron door"-a series of rapids extending for three miles, and formed of rocks of a ferruginous hue, giving occasion to the name, as well from the obstruction which it offers as from the materials of which it is composed. It was these and similar impediments the Count proposed to overcome. Gangs of workmen were employed in various parts of the stream, and an impulse was given to the torpid and lazy Wallachians and other inhabitants of the banks, which seemed to them like a disturbed dream. The navigation is now effected from Pesth to Rudschûk, with only one impediment not yet removed. One steam-boat carries the passengers from the former place, and another takes them up and conveys them to the latter. The navigable Oct.-VOL. XLV. NO. CLXXVIII,

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stations on the river, as given by our author, are seven, exclusive of the distance from its mouth to the Bosphorus and Constantinople, and the whole amounts to 435 German, or 1958 English miles. A company is now established in Germany, for the purpose of opening a communication between the Rhine and the Danube. When this is accomplished, and we have no doubt it soon will be, what a scope for delightful anticipation does it not afford! Conceive a steamer leaving London with an agreeable party for a summer's excursion, entering the continent of Europe on the west side, by the mouth of one great river, and issuing from it on the east by the mouth of another, and after penetrating the centre of one quarter of the globe through its whole extent, and passing through all that is romantic in nature, and all that is improved in social life-mountains and forests, cities and corn-fields, highly cultivated nations and semi-barbarous tribes, are again set down in London in a space of time shorter than it formerly took to visit Scotland, and with much more ease, comfort, and security.

Besides the information contained in Mr. Quin's book, his personal narrative is very entertaining. He is a traveller of a cultivated and well-informed mind, sees objects with a curious eye, and sketches them with an agreeable pencil; but, above all, he seems an amiable man, with a kindly heart. He dedicates his book to his wife, and incidents continually occur to call forth the social and domestic affections which dictated the dedication. He embarked in the steamer at Pesth, in Hungary, and continued his aquatic excursion to Rudschûk, in Bulgaria. He met on his way a variety of characters, which he describes well. One was a very extraordinary being, with his person and dress in a very mutilated state; yet he displayed a versatility of talent that renders probable the story of the admirable Crichton. Another was Hussein Pasha, who was so distinguished a character in the extirpation of the Janissaries, and who is now governor of one of the Turkish provinces; and a third was the good and accomplished Hungarian Count, to whose patriotic exertions the navigation of the Danube owes its origin. At Rudschûk, Mr. Quin left the river, crossed the Balkan Mountains, and proceeded to Constantinople. This journey, a short time ago so curious and interesting, is now as common as "the_road between London and St. Alban's." From Constantinople he proceeded to Smyrna, thence to Greece, and so by the Ionian Islands to Italy and England; but what he saw in passing, though detailed in his usual agreeable manner, has been so recently and so frequently anticipated, that little new was left him to say, except that his book contains the "latest news" from those places. He embarked on the Danube on the 24th September, 1834, and arrived in London on 5th February, 1835, having accomplished this most interesting tour in four months, which fifty years ago could not have been performed in as many years.

Letters on the Philosophy of Unbelief. By the Rev. James Wills.

As a work which unites sound philosophy with a spirit of truly Christian piety, a convincing series of arguments with the utmost temper and candour, and which, by meeting the unbeliever by reasoning drawn from his own principles, turns the very weapons forged against Revelation into powerful instruments for its defence, we know not of any production of late years, which can be considered superior to the letters of Mr. James Wills on the important subject to which he has devoted his consideration. The works of Addison, Butler, Paley, and others, devoted to the most obvious arguments which could be alleged in support of Christianity, left many points of vantage unoccupied, which in modern times have been observed and made good by succeeding writers, and as instances of this, we are not aware that we can cite better proofs than the appearance of Mr. Sheppard's book on the "Divine Origin of Christianity," and the publication of the volume before us. It is true that the writings on this sub

ject are sufficiently voluminous, yet, that they are superfluous no one, we think, who considers the importance of the question, and the extent to which opposite sentiments have been latterly advocated, will be disposed to affirm. To the sincere believer, also, the contemplation of the same basis upon which his faith is founded is anything but an unsatisfactory or unprofitable exercise. Religion, in respect to its evidences, resembles those gems which, at whatever point they are viewed, continue to present a succession of the fairest shades of colour to the eye of the spectator; and if the Psalmist of old delighted to mark the battlements, and to number the towers of that spiritual fortress, which he was permitted in anticipation only to behold, with how much greater pleasure should those among whom it is reared as a present dwelling and place of shelter, dwell upon its stately defences and aspect of impregnable strength. We do not enter at large into Mr. Wills's arguments, because they are incapable of being compressed into the space within which necessity confines our critical notices, and are in consequence compelled to refer our readers to the book itself; but if, after a perusal of its contents, they do not consider it deserving a place in every theological library, and, as far as human means can be considered such, eminently qualified for effecting the object which the writer has in view, we are willing to acknowledge ourselves under a greater aberration of judgment, in the present instance, than any under the influence of which through the course of our lives we can recollect ourselves to have fallen.

The Life and Times of General Washington. By Cyrus R. Edmonds.

Pregnant as the history of the last century has been in characters which, from their own intrinsic qualities, or from the important and extraordinary circumstances under which they have been called to act, have acquired a lasting claim upon the attention or admiration of posterity, there is not one on which the regards of mankind at large can be more advantageously fixed than on that of the chief actor in the war of American independence. With respect to the question itself, from which that unhappy contest originated, there is now we believe but one prevalent opinion. The personal feelings which some time ago warped the judgments of our fathers upon the subject have long since passed from existence. Upon most of those actually engaged in that first of the long series of struggles which have since continued at different times and places to convulse the civilized world, the grave has already closed, burying with them the bitterness and the prejudice, the sense of humiliation from defeat, and the consciousness of recent national dishonour widely and perniciously incurred, which so long prevented many even of the most enlightened among us from taking correct views of those events under the consequences of which they suffered too keenly to enter with any great degree of impartiality into the question of abstract justice, connected with their causes. We are now, however, enabled to pass a judgment upon this portion of our history without any individual interest, and consequently with little inducement to err; and our eyes, freed from the mists which so long prevented a true contemplation of the subject in its general character and relations, have at length been taught to look upon the efforts of America to escape from our dominion as a great and permanent benefit to mankind at large; and to ourselves in particular, an example by which the principles of our own constitution have been more strongly established, and from the teaching of which our children's children may derive practical wisdom in ages yet

to come.

Under this consideration, we cannot but consider Mr. Edmonds's work as a most valuable addition to the series of publications of which it forms a part; nor can we refrain from expressing a sincere wish that, among our domestic circles in particular, it may obtain a speedy and general circula

tion. He has modestly stated that his performance is to be considered in the light of a compilation alone. All history, to a great extent, must necessarily be such; but without stopping to dispute the justice of the title he has bestowed upon his labours, it must be acknowledged that his extracts are always connected by an interesting and elegant style of narrative. The portrait of the great subject of the work is drawn with an impartial and accurate hand; and the scenes in which he figured are well and graphically described. We see again the storm gathering over the western world, which our own imbecility and injustice at first provoked, and subsequently in vain attempted to allay. We listen once more to the impassioned eloquence, which-if any human means could have done somust have persuaded to reason the infatuation of the British Senate-to the elaborate and poetical rhetoric of Burke, and the fervid and energetic declamation of that Pericles of England, the upright and high-minded Lord Chatham; nor are we less interested in the tumult of warlike preparation, the march of armies, and the alternate vicissitudes of that remarkable war, to the sharp arbitrement of which the question of colonial rights was ultimately confided. Mr. Edmonds's first volume conducts us from the causes and beginning of this momentous struggle, through the alternations of victory and defeat on both sides, to the evacuation of Philadelphia by the British forces, and the subsequent battle of Monmouth. Within this period events of great importance and absorbing interest are thickly sown, nor have they been recorded by an unworthy pen; and few readers, we imagine, will follow the drama of American Independence thus far, without looking forward with pleasurable expectation to the description of its closing scenes by the same author. We should add, that a considerable portion of the original correspondence of Washington gives an additional value to the volume.

Gleanings in Natural History. By Edward Jesse. Third Series.

Mr. Jesse says that these are the last of his Gleanings! Does he mean that the great book of Nature affords no more leaves for a gentle, skilful hand like his to turn? Does he wish us to believe that his broad and beautiful Thames is dry, or that the birds, and bees, and butterflies which crowd the parks he ranges, have deserted their homes, and that he can look on them no more? This volume is proof positive that the feeling which has taught him to look from "Nature up to Nature's God" is warm around his heart as ever; that he has an eye to perceive, a heart to feel, a head to comprehend the beauties, if not the mysteries of "all mysterious Nature.” No, no; we shall look for another, and another sheaf from his great storehouse-there is no stint in Nature's granaries. He has observed much, and recorded much; but there is still more to observe, more to record. We hope he will continue to investigate, and "make notes." We regard naturalists as the benefactors of the animal creation; they teach us to do justice to the inferior world-they show us the wisdom that dwells with Nature-they develope the tenderness of the Almighty-they seek the sunshine of God's countenance, and rest content beneath the smile which smiles " on all that he has made;" they have nothing to do with the storms and passions of the multitude-they behold the abundance of nature-they breathe the purest air-they strengthen themselves by wholesome exercise-the trees, and birds, and animals, are their friends-the wilderness, to them, is peopled-the hills and valleys are full of music! They see how good are all things-they learn, and teach " more than content e'er taught." No, we will not hear of" last books" while such men live.

To those who desire an acquaintance with our parks and palaces, this volume will prove the most valuable of the series; it is a perfect guide to Hampton Court, Windsor, and Richmond-a guide-book without stiffness